Backside to high: Teresa Ellis, Clara de la Fuente and Jennifer Lask with their paintings exterior Analog Wine Library in Urbana on Tuesday, April 11, 2023.
URBANA — A shared admiration of the pure world to flee the stressors of each day life introduced collectively the visions of three native artists.
This yr, that trio — Jennifer Lask, Clara de la Fuente and Teresa Ellis — have teamed up for a multimedia exhibit known as “World of Wonders” on this yr’s Boneyard Arts Competition, targeted on nature’s skill to heal.
Via close-ups of flowers, landscapes of sunsets and acquainted Midwest scenes in pictures, block prints and work, the artists hope their work, displayed in Analog Wine Library in Urbana, will urge viewers to go to for themselves.
“I feel the one that involves this present leaves feeling like ‘I must spend extra time in nature,’” de la Fuente mentioned. “On the finish of the day, life is difficult as it’s, so it’s necessary to take a minute to replicate on the expertise and take up what we should always and let different issues go.”
The three-day Boneyard Arts Competition invitations Champaign County artists and venues to fill its cities with locally-sourced paintings. Tons of of artists and 80 venues have signed up for the twenty first annual showcase, run by county arts council 40 North | 88 West every spring.
The “World of Wonders” trio linked up months in the past via a Fb invite from de la Fuente, who wished to search out collaborators for her upcoming Boneyard exhibit. Lask and Ellis answered the decision, bonding over their shared love of pure scenes as a muse for his or her work.
“With the pandemic, there have been numerous occasions the place you do really feel a bit lonely. Perhaps you don’t get to see somebody that you simply love since you’re attempting to maintain them protected,” Lask mentioned. “I do know that each time I’ve felt very confused, I’ve discovered myself gravitating in the direction of my digital camera and going out for a stroll close to my condominium or a park the place there’s one thing stunning to seize.”
From left, Teresa Ellis, Clara de la Fuente and Jennifer Lask exhibit their paintings Tuesday exterior Analog Wine Library in Urbana.
Ellis developed the same behavior, taking her digital camera on frequent nature hikes.
“When Clara put the decision out on-line, it was kind of like the right factor falling from the heavens,” she mentioned.
De la Fuente has made a number of colourful panorama work for the exhibit, in acrylic, watercolor and gouache. Ellis will current linoleum block prints of wildflowers and birds, plus new nature pictures of native plant species. Lask shot pure scenes from a number of communities within the Midwest and southwestern U.S.
“There are undoubtedly some work Clara has completed and images Jen has taken, despite the fact that they’re fully unbiased artistic pursuits, they have been simply begging to be put aspect by aspect,” Ellis mentioned.
The exhibit is totally powered by ladies; all three artists are feminine, and Analog is woman-owned.
“World of Wonders” hosts its comfortable opening on Thursday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Guests can meet and greet the artists on Friday at 9 p.m., and attend a stay portray and printing present, based mostly on one in all Lask’s images, on Saturday at 8 p.m.
A lot of their new and limited-edition artworks will stick round Analog till early Could. Like many different showcases round city, each bit is purchasable, up for supply or pickup when the exhibition ends.
“There’s a synergy between everybody working collectively and this sense of neighborhood that completely shines in Boneyard,” de la Fuente mentioned. “It’s people at their finest.”
